Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1930 - 1947 (Creation)
Level of description
Fonds
Extent and medium
305 boxes
Context area
Name of creator
Administrative history
After the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, legislation was enacted which discriminated against the non-White section of the population and increased the racial segregation existing at the time of Union. This angered many Blacks and caused a series of strikes by Black workers. By the 1920s responsible Europeans, particularly churchmen, saw the importance of bringing the races together. Native Welfare Societies, consisting of liberal and philanthropic Europeans, were founded which in due course were replaced by Joint Councils, inter-racial in character.
The Joint Council movement was largely the inspiration of Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones and Dr. J.E.K. Aggrey who in 1921 conducted a study tour of education in South Africa on behalf of the Phelps-Stokes Fund of the United States of America. They had seen the value of inter-racial councils in America and persuaded Dr. C.T. Loram, Chief Inspector of Education in Natal, and his friend J. D. Rheinallt Jones, Secretary of the Witwatersrand Council of Education, to establish a multi-racial organisation with the aim of promoting understanding and goodwill between the races. Rheinallt Jones founded the first Joint Council of Europeans and Africans in Johannesburg in 1921 and by 1931 there were in existence thirty European-African Joint Councils' three European-Indian Joint Councils and a European-Coloured Joint Council was in the process of formation. In all eighty Joint Councils were established, many of them continuing to exist side by side with the Institute of Race Relations after it was founded in 1929. By 1951 only two Joint Councils remained, of which only one was active.
During visits to South Africa in the 1920s Dr. Jesse Jones convinced Rheinallt Jones of the need to set up a national body to centralise interracial activities. The project was made possible by finance from the Phelps-Stokes Fund and the Carnegie Corporation. Rheinallt Jones convened an inter-racial conference in Cape Town in January 1929 which revealed enthusiasm for a national organisation. He called together a committee of seven prominent South Africans not connected with any political party - E.H. Brookes, Professor J. du Plessis, Professor D.D.T. Jabavu, Dr. C.T. Loram, T.W. Mackenzie, J.H. Nicholson and J.H. Pim. They met on 9 May 1929 at the house of the Rev. Dr. R.E. Phillips in Johannesburg, resolved to fern a South African Institute of Race Relations and elected C.T. Loram chairman Howard Pim treasurer and Rheinallt Jones secretary.
With the deaths of Mackenzie end Nicholson and the transfer of Loram to a professorial chair at Yale, the Committee was reduced to six but in 1930 Dr. J.G. van der Horst was added and in 1931 Professor R.F.A. Hoernle, Leo Marquard and Senator Lewis Byron. These ten committee members are regarded as the foundation members of the Institute.
Archival history
In November 1972 the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand various of its archival collections including 315 boxes of the papers of John David Rheinallt Jones, a former director of the Institute. These boxes were known as the "RJ" collection. At the same time 103 boxes of SAIRR "R" box collection were transferred. Both collections relate to the work of the Institute and both contain the papers of Rheinallt Jones. The Institute's archivist in 1972, Jeanette Curtis (Mrs J. Schoon), thought that the "B" box collection contained the official records of the Institute and the "RJ" collection the personal papers of J.D. Rheinallt Jones. This is not so as the two collections have virtually the same sort of material and cover the same period of time.
The "B" box collection was described in Inventory No.10, 'Records of the South African Institute of Race Relations, Part I' published by the University Library in 1981. The Institute's archivist, J. (Jeanette) Curtis, came to the library and re-sorted the "R.J." collection into broad subject categories. Unfortunately, her detention by the government and her resignation from the Institute prevented the task from being completed. In 1981 the papers of Edith Rheinallt Jones (10 boxes) were made into a separate collection and an unpublished inventory of them was compiled. Similarly, in 1984, a separate collection was made of the records of the Joint Council movement (53 boxes), described in Inventory No.12, Records of the Joint Council of Europeans and Africans. The remainder of the "RJ" collection is described by the University Library's Curator of Manuscripts, Anne Cunningham, in this present inventory, No.15.
Biographical and administrative history: All the activities prior to 1950 mentioned above are reflected in the "RJ" collection.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
This "RJ" collection, spans the years 1929 to 1954 although there are some items as early as 1921 and as late as 1968. There is a large section on the foundation and work of the Institute covering its policy, publications, membership, administration, activities and regions. The other subject divisions are urban affairs, land, taxation, legislation, franchise, justice, economics, labour, education, Coloured and Indian affairs, social services, World War II, organisations with which the Institute was associated, Protectorates, Africa, church and missionary and J.D. Rheinallt Jones in his personal and senatorial capacity. The collection reflects the Institute's efforts to upgrade the economic, social and political status of Blacks, Coloureds and Indians in South Africa, with particular reference to housing, health, education and franchise, and to improving relations between the different races.
This inventory is dedicated to the late Jeanette Curtis, the SAIRR's archivist, who was responsible for gathering together this collection and ensuring its preservation for researchers.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Compiled by Anna M. Cunningham, February 1990
Uploaded finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Please note that some of the folders contained photographs, which were extracted and stored in the Media room. They are described both in this collection as well as the Guide to Photographs.
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
A folder of correspondence between the Bantu Welfare Trust and Nelson R Mandela was digitised and uploaded under Pb.11.3.